Downtown away from town

The latest applicant to become a Planned Development District (PDD) is Colonial Properties Trust. Its the real estate company out of Alabama thats taken an option from N.C. State University to buy the 179-acre tract west of the RBC Center on the Wade Avenue extension. The pricetag: $14.5 million.

The land is zoned for agricultural use now. Before it goes through with the purchase, Colonial wants it rezoned a PDDin effect, removing all zoning restrictions on it other than those the company imposes on itself in a so-called master plan. Thats what PDDs are all about.

Colonials master plan is pretty vague. Thats not surprising, since, as Charles McGeehee, the firms executive vice president, told a City Council committee last week, it will take them 5-7 years to develop the tract and, as yet, they havent signed the first tenant.

So theyd like to retain as much flexibility as possible about what could go there.

The problem is, local leaders worked hard with the city to draw up a small-area plan back when the arena was going upto make sure that what came with it wouldnt overwhelm their neighborhoods. The small-area plan calls for village scale, as Councilor Neal Hunt, the committee chair, noted. But Colonials master plan would allow buildings up to 120 feet tall and two big-box stores of 85,000 square feet each. Colonial still had time to revise it, but as it stood then, Hunt added, theres no effort to have a real mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented development there.

Meanwhile, the tall buildings Colonial wants to put up on the highway are just what Raleigh says it wants downtown. Of course, the RBC Center isnt downtown, either.